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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23489296">Roll, Roll, Revolution</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mageia_D/pseuds/Mageia_D'>Mageia_D</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Eddsworld - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Humor, Other, Revolution</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 09:09:13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,617</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23489296</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mageia_D/pseuds/Mageia_D</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Tom is exposed to the true horrors of a bowling alley and takes it upon himself to bring justice to his brethren.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>28</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Roll, Roll, Revolution</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Caution: The word "balls" is abundant throughout this fic. I assure you, however, that it is only used in reference to the kind that you throw down a lane at a set of pins.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Tom and Edd had practically melted into the couch, waist-deep in a TV marathon to which there was no end in sight. They had long since drained their reserves of popcorn, and when it became apparent that there was none left in the pantry, they promptly sent Matt out to get more.</p>
<p>That had to have been ages ago, though, and Matt had yet to return.</p>
<p>“... Do you wanna go find him?” Edd droned, his gaze unmoved from the TV screen.</p>
<p>“Nope.” Tom replied.</p>
<p>“Me, neither.”</p>
<p>Just then, the front door swung open and Matt triumphantly strode into the house, his hands empty of any popcorn.</p>
<p>“Aw, man, I thought he was gone for good this time…” Tom groaned.</p>
<p>“Did you get the popcorn?” Edd asked, sitting up.</p>
<p>“Yep!” Matt chimed.</p>
<p>“... Where is it?”</p>
<p>“Well, I was walking back, when…"</p>
<p>Matt proceeded to explain that on his way home, he ran into a chronic popcorn addict who immediately began begging for the box of microwave popcorn in his hands. Matt agreed to give it to them, under the condition that they provide a fair trade for it.</p>
<p>“... you gave away the popcorn.” Tom sighed, sinking further into the couch in defeat.</p>
<p>“I didn’t give it away," Matt scoffed, “I traded it for something even better!”</p>
<p>“You mean to tell me there’s something better than outrageously unhealthy snacks and mind-numbing, utterly meaningless television?” Edd marveled.</p>
<p>“Leave your wallets at home, fellows, and follow me!”</p>
<p>With that, Matt dashed out the door once again with his two friends following close behind.</p>
<p>~~*~~</p>
<p>“Why did we choose to follow Matt??” Tom whined as the group wandered a near-empty street. After what felt like years of walking around in circles, they were absolutely, utterly, undoubtedly, hopelessly lost.</p>
<p>“Where are we even going?” Edd demanded, crossing his arms. Matt simply held up a hand and shushed the two. “It won’t be much longer”, he promised. He held his square-shaped chin high and marched on, ignoring the groans Tom and Edd uttered from behind him. Just as Tom was considering turning tail and heading home, Matt suddenly stopped in his tracks, causing Edd to run straight into him from behind, Tom following suit a few steps later.</p>
<p>Matt took no notice. He was too busy gazing up at the building he had stopped in front of, his eyes glimmering with triumph and his mouth curled into a bold, proud smile. “My friends, we have arrived!”</p>
<p>Edd rubbed his freshly-bruised forehead as he looked up at the building. It wasn’t anything impressive, just a flat brick structure painted a pale shade of orange safely tucked into the surrounding stores and facilities. Hanging above the wide glass door was a neon sign that greeted the three with the words “UNCLE DAVE’S BOWLING LANES” in a cheerful shade of blue.</p>
<p>“Oh, a bowling alley!” Tom remarked, straightening his back. “My mom grew up in one of these.”</p>
<p>“And we have free access to it!” Matt proclaimed, producing a small, wrinkled slip of paper from his overcoat. “Free bowling for one day for up to three people. You’re welcome.”</p>
<p>“Well, what’re we waiting for??” Edd blurted.</p>
<p>“I don’t know!” Tom exclaimed.</p>
<p>The three dashed inside without a second more of hesitation.</p>
<p>Uncle Dave was an overweight man with a large, neatly combed white beard. He wore large sunglasses and a white hat with a black band as though he gave no care to the fact that he was indoors. When Edd, Matt, and Tom came through the door, he was slouched over the counter in a deep sleep.</p>
<p>Matt peeked at the old man from over the counter as his snores drifted around the room. Matt turned to his companions with a puzzled expression, only to be met with an equally puzzled shrug from Edd and a disinterested blink from Tom.</p>
<p>The ginger settled on turning back to Uncle Dave and giving his beard a few nervous pokes. “E-excuse me?” he chirped.</p>
<p>With a sudden *snorf*, Uncle Dave sprung from his slumber. Matt yanked his hand back as Dave rubbed an eye under his glasses.</p>
<p>“Morning, sleepyhead," Tom scoffed sarcastically.</p>
<p>“I traded a box of popcorn to a dirty person on the street for a coupon, so can we go bowling?” Matt babbled, presenting the paper slip to the sleepy man behind the counter.</p>
<p>Uncle Dave took the coupon in one of his large, rough hands and examined it with slow eyes, then pulled his gaze back up to the three.</p>
<p>“Put your shoes on the counter”, he sighed, his voice gruff.<br/>The three did as they were told and received a pair of bowling shoes each.</p>
<p>With Edd dashing, Matt bouncing, and Tom sauntering, they made their way to a lane and went about setting up their game. As Edd and Matt began to argue about who should go first, Tom wandered over to the bowling balls and decided to kneel down to a cloudy grey ball on one of the bottom racks. The golden “W” engraved on the smooth surface of the ball caught the dull lighting of the bowling alley and turned it into a few small, yet brilliant sparkles.</p>
<p>“Hey, I’m Tom," he introduced himself.</p>
<p>“...”</p>
<p>“Nice to meet you, too.”</p>
<p>“...”</p>
<p>“So, uh, how’s it going?”</p>
<p>“...”</p>
<p>Tom laughed. “That sounds horrible.”</p>
<p>“Hey, Tom!” Edd called from their lane. “What are you doing?”</p>
<p>“I’m-”</p>
<p>“I don’t actually care. Pick a ball and get over here!”</p>
<p>Tom gave Edd an exasperated glare before gently picking up the grey bowling ball and heading back over to his friends.</p>
<p>“Matt lost rock-paper-scissors, so I get to go first.” Edd declared proudly, a red and white marbled ball tucked under his arm. Matt grumbled some unkind words from behind the cotton candy pink ball he had selected.</p>
<p>If Tom had eyes, he would have been rolling them. “What’s the point of this, anyway?"</p>
<p>“Watch and learn.” Edd smirked. He strode up to the lane and studied the pins from afar for a few moments.</p>
<p>“Oooookay, you’re just looking at it”, Tom commented.</p>
<p>“... Why are you holding the ball like that?”</p>
<p>“Why are you swinging it so fast?”</p>
<p>“What are you doing??”</p>
<p>“Holy jumping gerbil in a glass factory!”</p>
<p>Tom watched in horror as Edd’s ball was sent careening down the lane. He threw his hands over the holes in his own ball before the pins were toppled with a loud, distinct clatter.</p>
<p>“Aww, only four?” Edd complained. Matt let out a shard “HA!” to add to the sting of his friend’s disappointment.</p>
<p>Tom, however, was pale and shaky. He likely would have looked less horrified if he had just witnessed a murder.<br/>He bolted over to Edd’s ball the moment it returned to the rack and profusely asked it if it was alright. Edd and Matt looked on in confusion, concern, and a hint of fear.</p>
<p>“What’s wrong with you?!” Tom demanded.</p>
<p>“What are you talking about?” Edd replied, bewildered.</p>
<p>“You just sent him flying into a bunch of pins!”</p>
<p>His words were met with a blank stare. “Tom, that’s… literally the entire point of bowling.”</p>
<p>Tom’s jaw dropped. He stared at Edd in shock and disbelief.</p>
<p>“What?? Your mom is a bowling ball, didn’t she tell you about this?"</p>
<p>“I can see why she wouldn’t want to talk about it now!”</p>
<p>“How can you see anything with those empty eyes…?” Matt pondered softly from the background.</p>
<p>“You people are barbarians”, Tom sputtered.</p>
<p>“Tom, come on, let’s just-”</p>
<p>Before Edd could say anything more, Tom had turned and marched past Uncle Dane, who was already asleep once again, and left the building, the grey bowling ball in tow.</p>
<p>“Geez”, Edd sighed. “It’s rare to see him so riled up.”</p>
<p>“Yeah. It’s pretty funny.” Matt grinned in reply.</p>
<p>Edd chuckled as he turned back to the game. “Yeah, it is.”</p>
<p>~~*~~</p>
<p>Back at home, Tom paced the length of his room, the grey bowling ball resting on his bedside table. The panic of seeing Edd’s bowling ball being launched down the lane had abandoned him and left only anger behind.</p>
<p>“It’s just not right!"</p>
<p>“...”</p>
<p>“Exactly.”</p>
<p>“...”</p>
<p>Tom stopped dead in his tracks and stared hard at the ball. “Don’t say that…!”</p>
<p>“..."<br/>“There has to be something we can do," Tom replied heavily, sitting on the edge of his bed. The room was quiet as the gears in his head began to turn. Slowly but surely, a plan began to assemble itself in his mind.</p>
<p>That plan quickly fell apart, however, when he realized he would not have the money for 72 pounds of ground beef and was promptly replaced by a different, less expensive plan. He spent the rest of the afternoon hunched over his desk with the bowling ball at his side, drawing out the details furiously. Crumpled-up pieces of paper piled up around the legs of his desk by the dozen until, finally, the two had come up with something perfect.</p>
<p>Tom took a step back and held the paper up to the window, marveling at his hard work in the light.</p>
<p>“They won’t know what hit them," he breathed, a wide, mischievous grin spreading across his face.</p>
<p>“...”</p>
<p>He high-fived the bowling ball, but quickly scrambled to catch it when it started rolling off the desk.</p>
<p>“...”</p>
<p>“You’re right. We have work to do.”</p>
<p>When Matt and Edd returned home, Tom was nowhere to be found.</p>
<p>~~*~~</p>
<p>The night rolled on above Tom’s head as he dashed around streetlamps, retracting his path from earlier that day to get to the bowling alley. He had slung a heavy backpack around his shoulders and replaced his usual blue hoodie with one that was a few shades darker in preparation, not to mention to feel more stealthy.</p>
<p>After following his, Edd and Matt’s footsteps a little too closely and sneaking around in circles for a considerable amount of time, Tom finally made his way up to the bowling alley, ducking behind trash cans and boxes as he went. The neon sign remained alight, casting a bright shade of blue over the pavement and scattering into the air. It shined across Tom’s face as he tip-toed around to the back of the building, where the darkness was so deep he couldn’t see his hands as he dug around in his bag for the flashlight he had packed.</p>
<p>The narrow beam of light quickly revealed a back door, which Tom pounced on right away, giving the handle a tug.</p>
<p>“Damn," he mumbled out loud, “I’ll need to pick the lock…”</p>
<p>Minutes later, after deciding kicking the door until it gave way was a sufficient means of picking the lock, he walked into the building, leaving the broken door behind him.</p>
<p>He made his way through a back office, a locker room full of bowling shoes (and a few rats who weren’t pleased about having a spiky-headed human interrupt their evening congregation, from the sound of it), and the front desk. His shoulders tensed as he stepped into the main room where the lanes stretched back into the darkness and the bowling balls were nestled on their racks. The anxiety fluttering up in his belly kept him still for a moment, but only for a moment as the memory of Edd’s bowling ball being so mercilessly thrown down the lane replayed in his mind. He didn’t waste a second more and got straight to work.</p>
<p>He went to the rack the grey ball had been taken from first and knelt down as he took his backpack off his shoulders. A drill emerged from one of its larger pockets and made short work of the screws holding the rack in place.</p>
<p>The balls fell to the ground with loud *thunk*ing sounds. “Go, get out of here! You’re free!” Tom called in a loud whisper. He nudged a few straying balls to roll in the direction of the back door and moved on to the next rack, releasing those balls in the same way.</p>
<p>Tom moved about the bowling alley, systematically freeing the bowling balls one shelf at a time. The danger felt as though it was growing with every passing second. He could feel it breathing down his neck, but he powered through, reminding himself of the cause every time his fear flared up in his gut.</p>
<p>At last, only one rack remained. The last set of bowling balls gleamed in the pale moonlight, their colors muted and bathed in silver. “This is it”, he thought to himself as he set the drill to the top screw.</p>
<p>Suddenly, the lights in the room flicked on. Tom felt every atom in his being freeze before he could pull the trigger. For one agonizing moment, the entire bowling alley drowned in silence.</p>
<p>“What in the Sam Hell are you doing??” a gruff voice called. Tom’s heart pounded in his throat as his head turned to face a very frumpy-looking Uncle Dave. He had received an alert through the security system installed in the bowling alley that it had been broken into, but he wasn’t necessarily expecting to find all the racks halfway taken down and devoid of any bowling balls.</p>
<p>In an instant, the sight of him filled Tom with the rage and determination of revolution. “What does it look like I’m doing?!”, he snarled. “I’m freeing the innocent balls you’ve trapped as toys for your sick, twisted game!”</p>
<p>“I’m calling the police.” Dave pulled his phone from his pocket and squinted at the screen. “What was the number again…?”</p>
<p>Before he could recall any of the digits, a thick grey blur zipped down from above and knocked his phone out of his hands, forcing a startled “HEY!” from his mouth. The grey bowling ball slammed into the ground at his feet next to the now-broken phone, its golden “W” shining proudly under the lights. It bounced into a roll upon impact, prompting Dave to chase after it.</p>
<p>“...”</p>
<p>“Right!” Tom began drilling away at the screws as Dave huffed and puffed behind the grey ball. His determination paid off when the balls on the shelf finally broke free and started to roll away.</p>
<p>Uncle Dave stopped dead in his tracks and glared flames into Tom’s skull. “Why, you little-!” He cried as he charged towards him.<br/>Tom did the first thing his instincts told him to do and threw the drill at Dave’s feet. Dave stumbled over it with a startled shout and tumbled down, hitting the ground harder than the bowling balls did.</p>
<p>Tom allowed himself no time to wince at the impact. He scrambled to collect the grey bowling ball and ran as fast as his legs would carry him out of the bowling alley and into the night, leaving the echoes of Uncle Dave’s curses behind him.</p>
<p>~~*~~</p>
<p>Tom emerged from his room late the next morning, moving slowly as usual. Matt and Edd were playing rock-paper-scissors for the last piece of bacon when he trudged into the kitchen.</p>
<p>“Good morning, Tom!” Matt greeted him, waving cheerfully.</p>
<p>“Morning, Tom.” Edd said absentmindedly, slowly reaching to snatch the piece of bacon from Matt’s plate while he wasn’t looking.</p>
<p>“Good morning indeed," Tom grinned, taking a seat at the table with a mug in his hands. His response was met with a shocked silence.</p>
<p>“Uh, go anywhere last night?” Edd asked warily.</p>
<p>“Yep!”</p>
<p>Edd and Matt waited for him to provide an explanation or elaborate, but he did neither.</p>
<p>“Alright, something’s up.” Edd declared. “You’re never this happy in the morning."</p>
<p>“Yeah”, Matt agreed, narrowing his eyes at Tom in suspicion. “What happened?”</p>
<p>“Justice, my friends.”</p>
<p>He leaned back in his chair and took a big sip of the booze he had poured into his mug, smiling contently.</p>
<p>“Justice.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The End</p>
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